"Ad apps": strictly for advertising

A couple days ago I posted about "crap apps": entertaining and completely useless apps A couple days ago I posted about "crap apps": entertaining and completely useless apps that in some cases make a lot more money for the developer than serious apps. Now the Wall Street Journal has an article on what might be called "ad apps": apps whose main purpose is to promote a product. The WSJ tells the story of iBurger, which promotes a Hardee's burger. If you make a munching noise into your microphone, bites are taken out of the onscreen burger. By far the most popular ad app is Zippo, a cigarette lighter that opens with a flick of your wrist and lights with a turn of your thumb. It has some 120,000 ratings in the app store. No doubt we'll be seeing a lot more of these apps.

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Jim Karpen holds a Ph.D. in literature and writing, and has a love of gizmos. His doctoral dissertation focused on the revolutionary consequences of digital technologies and anticipated some of the developments taking place in the industry today. Jim has been writing about the Internet and technology since 1994 and has been using Apple's visionary products for decades.